Rabbi Ben meditating as he looks out over the Pacific Ocean

Meditation is a major part of most of the world’s religions.  Hindus and Buddhists believe their meditations can change the spiritual  vibrations of the world.  But in Judaism, we almost never hear meditation mentioned.  Why not? Does Jewish meditation exist? And if so, what is Jewish meditation?

To answer this question, you must first determine what meditation is.  There are many types of meditation.  Some meditation is simply quiet contemplation and some mediation is an attempt to reach spiritual realms.  These are totally different activities and are viewed differently by Judaism.

One of the most well-known types of meditation is transcendental meditation.  This is when people try to use meditation to reach a higher spiritual plane.  The Lubavitcher Rebbe spoke out strongly against this practice.  In Judaism we do believe in high spiritual worlds, but transcendental meditation is not the appropriate way to access them.  Transcendental meditation is used for avodah zarah (idol worship) and does not take G-d into account in the way that prayer does.  In Judaism, rather than engage in transcendental meditation, Jews should instead work on their prayer and study of Torah. In this way anybody is able to reach a higher spiritual level and those who work on themselves enough to become tzaddikim may even be able to access the higher spiritual worlds in a kosher manner.

But transcendental meditation is not the only kind of meditation.  Just because Jews should not engage in transcendental meditation does not mean they should not engage in any kind of meditation at all.  In fact, prayer can be a form of meditation.  Many of the traditional forms of meditation involve chanting a mantra or reciting a text.  There is nothing wrong with choosing a Jewish text to recite as part of a meditation or mantra. For example, reciting the Shema or saying over and over again “gam zu le tova” (everything is for the good) could be positive and fulfilling mantras and would aid in appropriate meditation.  In fact, someone who is very spiritually connected should view each of the daily prayers as an opportunity to connect to G-d directly and the text of the prayers should be like a meditation. As with a meditation, they should help clear the person’s mind and raise them to a higher level of spirituality and spiritual awareness.

There is another type of meditation we use in Judaism, which is called by the Breslov Hasidim “hibodedut.”  Rebbe Nachman of Breslov explains that this is a personal prayer in which you can say anything you want to G-d.  He advocates going alone to the fields and forests to pray like this for an hour every day.  If this is not a type of meditation, I don’t know what is! This is your chance to talk directly to G-d using whatever words and spiritual energy you have.

Furthermore, simply sitting quietly and clearing one’s mind is a type of meditation.  This is certainly not a problem in Judaism, although perhaps prayer is preferable.

But one must remember not to get too caught up in meditation, or even in prayer. Judaism is a religion of action.  Even someone who is praying the shmona esrei (the most holy prayer) must stop what he is doing and run to help in certain situations.  And there are many situations where it is preferable to stop one’s prayers to go do an active mitzvah helping another person.  In Judaism, of the 10 commandments, 5 are between G-d and man, and 5 are between man and man.  This indicates that we should find a balance between these two relationships in our lives.  Meditation is good because it can connect us to G-d, if done in the right way. But our relationship with G-d is only half of what we must accomplish as Jews. We must be sure to also work on our relationships with our fellow men, too.

Hopefully, this has given you all something to… well… meditate on!